After nearly 50 years of dramatic airlifts, daring rescues and covert diplomacy to bring Jews to Israel, the Jewish state is taking on a potentially tougher job: persuading American Jews to immigrate.

Israel has been built on waves of immigration, with new arrivals typically coming from dangerous or impoverished areas in the Middle East or eastern Europe.Now that the pool of "distressed" Jewry is running dry, Israel is trying to attract young professionals, college students and even high-schoolers from the United States, home of the world's largest Jewish community.

Israeli officials admit this won't be easy. Only about 3,000 American Jews immigrate to Israel each year, compared to tens of thousands who have come from more turbulent areas.

Holocaust survivors arrived on crowded boats and Middle Eastern Jews came by airlifts in the early days of statehood. In more recent years, Ethiopians, Syrians, Yemenites, Iraqis and Russians, assisted by Israeli diplomacy, have begun safer lives in Israel.

"Aliyah (immigration) from the West is going to be an aliyah of choice, not necessity," said Gad Ben-Ari, the top North American official of the Jewish Agency, the government body responsible for bringing Jews to Israel.

Because the agency's traditional offer of refuge won't sell in the West, Ben-Ari hopes to attract young Jews to Israel in "stages," offering summer tours, study programs and job opportunities that could lead to immigration.

"Before speaking about American Jews moving to Israel, you have to make every possible effort to see more American Jews visit Israel," he said.

American Jewish leaders said they support the effort, although much of that may be lip service, said Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of The Jewish Week, the largest U.S. Jewish newspaper.

"I think the general thinking is, `It's not for my kid, maybe for somebody else's kid,"' said Rosenblatt, a strong proponent of visiting youth programs in Israel.

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At a time when half of American Jews marry outside the religion, some Jewish leaders say their top priority is improving Jewish life inside the United States. That means strengthening synagogues, religious schools and other Jewish institutions before encouraging em-i-gra-tion.

"Making Israel central to people's lives starts with the process of making Judaism central in people's lives. That is higher on my agenda than aliyah as an abstract idea," said Barry Shrage, president of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies in Boston.

America's 6 million-strong Jewish community has an ambivalent relationship with Israel, a country the size of New Jersey with 5.8 million citizens. Nearly 70 percent of American Jews feel close to Israel, according to an American Jewish Committee survey this year. U.S. Jewish charities donate $900 million to Israel each year, and the pro-Israel lobby is among the most effective in Washington.

But only one in 10 American Jews ever visits Israel, the Jewish Agency said. And of the few who immigrate, half return to the United States within several years, experts say.

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